In פרשת שופטים, there are four instances where the term דם נקי, or a variation thereof, appears. If the vowel underneath the ד is a פתח, it would indicate סמיכות and the translation would be, "the blood of a clean (innocent) person." If it were a קמץ, it would simply mean clean blood. Although one might argue that the connotation is ultimately the same, I would say this is still a rather significant difference. Oh, wouldn't it be nice and simple if it were always the same. Alas, not only is it not always the same, there is not always 100% clarity as to which way it should be pronounced.
In שופטים, we have the following:
The latter three appear to be undisputed. However, someone came over to me about the first one suggesting the בעל קריאה had said it wrong. I was certain he had not. But sure enough his (Artscroll) חומש had a פתח while mine (חורב) had a קמץ. I have embedded a snippet from the ספר אם למקרא למסורת below which should bring some clarity to the subject.
(Or, now that it is available on HebrewBooks.org, you can view it here.)
1 comment:
Artscroll is a joke. It cannot be relied on for matters regarding the Masorah (ironically).
In fact I believe (this is from memory) that on this very posuk, the Artscroll Stone Chumash (with English) differs from the Artscroll Shul Chumash (without English). So Artscroll itself isn't even consistent. There are other examples of this.
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